COMMUNICATIONS: Unpregnant Drums

Perhaps the sedate editors of the London Times had read a lot of fiction of the Rider Haggard school. Last week, as it must to all romantics, disillusion came to the Times. Its correspondent in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, cabled some stolid facts about "bush telegraphy."

Said the Times: "It seems that the pregnant throbbing with which the romantic writers made such a play was not so very pregnant after all. Its eerie rhythm is not in fact relayed from campfire to campfire, nor does its sullen tattoo . . . disseminate throughout half a continent between dawn and dusk portentous...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!